XUV 500 niggles and their solutions

This is a discussion on XUV 500 niggles and their solutions within Technical Stuff, part of the Under the Hood category; My XUV is almost 17k kms done and was driving it to New mumbai from chembur. After approx 10 kms ...

My XUV is almost 17k kms done and was driving it to New mumbai from chembur. After approx 10 kms of drive as i crossed the Vashi toll plaza I hit the clutch to shift the the gears and the pedal just went in! Empty pedal! I kinda pulled it back and it worked fine. I knew something was not right as I had already heard about the clutch failures. I had 5 ppl in the car and had to do atleast another 8-10 kms to reach my freinds house. Since i was driving down the Palm beach road I could manage to stick to the 4th gear without having to change the gears often. I managed to reached his house and parked the car in his building compound. After around 10 mins the bldg watchman asked me to shift the car as the place I had parked the car was alloted to someone else. So i get inside the car and this time the pedal goes straight inside and refuses to release and thereby cant shift to any gear. So had been there since Saturday evening, and as i speak to you the Mahindra Rodeo towing truck has come to take the car to the nearby service center to replace the clutch assembly which they say would take at least 2 days.

Bottom line of the story:

The clutch pedal goes in empty 2-3 times before it gives up completely.
Do not turn off your car, because once you do that the clutch will fail completely.
The Mahindra rodeo helpline for towing the car is 1800 102 7006. This works in Mumbai for sure and its non chargeable towing.
The cluth might give away anytime as it shows no symtoms what so ever before just giving up on you. I know it sounds scary but it is true.

My XUV is almost 17k kms done and was driving it to New mumbai from chembur. After approx 10 kms of drive as i crossed the Vashi toll plaza I hit the clutch to shift the the gears and the pedal just went in! Empty pedal! ....
Saturday evening, and as i speak to you the Mahindra Rodeo towing truck has come to take the car to the nearby service center to replace the clutch assembly which they say would take at least 2 days.
...

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. Can you please confirm in which month your car was manufactured?

Also for the benefit of other owners like me, can you please get details about the reasons for the clutch failure? Is the problem isolated to a few batches? Is it by any chance a design flaw? If yes, is the new design already out?

There is good amount of confusion around XUV clutch-failures in the past. The clutch fluid leaking is one part, but in that case the replacements should be restricted to master/slave cylinders and the fluid lines. But they seem to be replacing parts of the main clutch assembly as well. Not sure if the fluid leakage can cause issues with the main clutch assembly.

I recently joined Team-BHP and am a new proud owner of XUV 500 W8. Bought this vehicle from Speedlinks Panchkula and it sure has problems inspite of being a great car. This is my first post and there is lots that I want to write about my experience of the Dealership, the handover of the car, Issues that I have been facing and highlighting to the head of dealership and to RCCM from Mahindra. I just wish, Anand Mahindra had access to this forum and he read through some of these posts and put some sensible Managers to resolve the Issues faced by XUV Owners, or is everyone too busy with the up coming launch of Rexter?

Few Issues other than the Brake Sound that is common for all XUV Owners that I notice :
1. Difficulty in putting the vehicle on Gear 1
2. Unbelievable Cabin noise, specially in Gear 3 and Gear 6
3. Crackling noise in the Clutch, like a wooden door during rainy season
4. Infotainment does not play the XUV CD given by the Dealership
5. No SMS display on I Phone - have heard that there is a problem with few handsets, I wish I Phone was spared

It's a great Car otherwise, just wish there were enough technical expertiese to fix these issues.

The clutch pedal goes in empty 2-3 times before it gives up completely.
Do not turn off your car, because once you do that the clutch will fail completely.

The clutch might give away anytime as it shows no symtoms what so ever before just giving up on you. I know it sounds scary but it is true.

1. How is switching off the engine and clutch failing related? As far as my little knowledge goes, clutch has nothing to do with engine running or not, isnt it? I am ready to learn!
Edit: Did you try pumping the clutch(before it sank). Did you try engaging gears(especially reverse) with engine off?

2. Did you see any leaks as SDP mentioned?

3. Did you get any updates from your Service manager, once they received the vehicle and inspected it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDP

There is good amount of confusion around XUV clutch-failures in the past. The clutch fluid leaking is one part, but in that case the replacements should be restricted to master/slave cylinders and the fluid lines. But they seem to be replacing parts of the main clutch assembly as well. Not sure if the fluid leakage can cause issues with the main clutch assembly.

SDP, when the problem is so well known, I am sure Mahindra R&D will be working on it. It would be wise and a stop-gap measure to just put the procurement from the current clutch OEM on hold and buy from other OEM's for future XUV batches or even as replacement for the ones reporting defects. Moreover, by looking at the popularity of this issue, I don't think this is any batch specific rather, an issue with the clutch OEM(design fault/manufacturing defect/not upto the mark quality)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jksantosh

I recently joined Team-BHP and am a new proud owner of XUV 500 W8.
I just wish, Anand Mahindra had access to this forum and he read through some of these posts and put some sensible Managers to resolve the Issues faced by XUV Owners

Welcome and congrats. I believe I can say on behalf of all the BHPians, that posts and threads in TBHP are open and public. Nobody needs access to read the threads and posts, so Mr. Mahindra is free to browse provided he has time for it.

I really dont know hows its related, maybe as mentioned it could be hydraulic. All I know is I dont want any fellow XUV drivers to be stuck on the middle of the road cause they turn off the engine. Anyways the car sits in the service center from Monday till now and it hasnt even been touched as due to the festive season they have low manpower. I hope to get the car by Saturday, and when I goto fletch it I will ask them about the clutch failure in detail.

I really dont know hows its related, maybe as mentioned it could be hydraulic. All I know is I dont want any fellow XUV drivers to be stuck on the middle of the road cause they turn off the engine. Anyways the car sits in the service center from Monday till now and it hasnt even been touched as due to the festive season they have low manpower. I hope to get the car by Saturday, and when I goto fletch it I will ask them about the clutch failure in detail.

This is not good. Which service center is this? G3 / Global Gallerie?
Unless they have completely shutdowned the operations due to festive season, its not an acceptable excuse. What they have done is de-prioritized your work. I am pretty sure that they are still taking appointments for regular service.
If I were you, I would keep the service center on a short leash and not allow them to take me for granted.

General question: Can the owner ask for a replacement vehicle while the service center takes its own sweet time to sort out a critical issue?

I recently joined Team-BHP and am a new proud owner of XUV 500 W8. Bought this vehicle from Speedlinks Panchkula and it sure has problems inspite of being a great car. This is my first post and there is lots that I want to write about my experience of the Dealership, the handover of the car, Issues that I have been facing and highlighting to the head of dealership and to RCCM from Mahindra. ...

Few Issues other than the Brake Sound that is common for all XUV Owners that I notice :
1. Difficulty in putting the vehicle on Gear 1
2. Unbelievable Cabin noise, specially in Gear 3 and Gear 6
3. Crackling noise in the Clutch, like a wooden door during rainy season
4. Infotainment does not play the XUV CD given by the Dealership
5. No SMS display on I Phone - have heard that there is a problem with few handsets, I wish I Phone was spared
...

Congratulations for the XUV and the first post! Please do start a ownership thread, we all love to ogle at rides of other folks (besides our own)!

First gear is notchy. Quite a few people have mentioned that. My service advisor mentioned that there is nothing that can be done about it. Have not heard from any other owner who got this resolved. But do check with your service center.

The cabin noise only in gear-3 and gear-6 is weird. I can imagine beyond a certain speed, the noise is loud. But only in specific gears?

Clutch crackling noise is also new. Please do get it checked and let us know as well.

2800 kms including a trip to Goa in 1.5 mths and i'm simbly lovin' it!
Not without it's share of niggles though. Some sorted out and some yet to be.

The ones that are sorted out are:
- The reverse camera and sensors weren't working from day 1. When they hooked up the diagnostics, it couldn't read something called the R-Pass sensor that runs this whole show. Took them a whole day and then some consultations with the company guys before they finally decided to change the entire floor wiring harness. That finally got it working.

- The brake pads that came on the car were the 2-groove patterns and they were subsequently changed [for some wierd reason, only the front 2] to the newer design with 3 bevels. Noise is almost gone, but it still sometimes comes from the rear wheels. Plan on getting those changed as well in my 5k service.

- The horn feels too hard. Need to press it all the way down to sound. They fixed it, so it's considerably better, but i like it to be feather-touch. Will see if this can be improved on further.

Now I need your help/ inputs on the ones that aren't sorted:
- When downshifting from 3rd to 2nd, the gear makes a krrr noise like you'd get when you don't press the clutch fully and try to change gears. The gear slots in easily though. And this doesn't happen all the time- maybe a couple of times in the day only. Unfortunately unable to replicate it at the ASC. They tried doing the 'clutch setting', but that hasn't worked. Wish to have a more clear perspective on this before I go for my 5k service.

-The speakers are not that great. So I tried to change them to Hertz 4" speakers but there's always a chrrrrr sound in the background when music is playing, and it got amplified when i switched to Hertz. Tried fiddling around with the settings, and it minimized when i set the treble to min... but that's not how i like my music. The accessories guy told me to check with Mahindra, since both the stock & Hertz speakers have this problem in varying intensity.

- Head- and fog lights: The fog lights are pretty useless, wonder what they're there for. can't make out even that they're switched on. The low beam gives good focussed light, but as someone mentioned earlier, I find the intensity to be low, especially on an unlit road or a highway. Wonder if I can increase the intensity in some way?

I have got my XUV500 W8, white color. Since I am loving it, it will take some time to notice the niggles.
Some very minor niggles till now
1. rattle noise from somewhere (maybe left door, or the glove box) when going over a rough patch on the road.
2. fume smell in the cabin - this is major but I am not sure if it is from own engine or from outside traffic. Will focus more to isolate.
3. the find location function's keyboard doesn't let me type characters as I want, but restricts, maybe based on location in its own db.

I have not done underbody or any other treatment. please suggest. Rear camera yet to be installed. does it work in night/ low light?

2. fume smell in the cabin - this is major but I am not sure if it is from own engine or from outside traffic. Will focus more to isolate.
3. the find location function's keyboard doesn't let me type characters as I want, but restricts, maybe based on location in its own db.

Rear camera yet to be installed. does it work in night/ low light?

anm,
2. if you're keeping your AC on auto mode, then without warning it'll simply tend to shift to external mode. keep an eye on that and if that's happening, you'll need to manually select the recirculation mode.
3. yes, that's a characteristic of mapmyindia, as you go on typing it'll only allow you to enter words that it does have in it's directory.

rear camera works superbly in low light/ night. it's a very useful tool while reversing at night, go for it.

I have completed 500 km on NCR roads. Avg is 9kmpl in traffic, and I witnessed 16kmpl for empty road - for about 20km stretch. The variation is huge. Does it get better after first service?

Can the auto stop time be set to a little longer? In the queue for noida toll, it starts/ stops multiple times. I manually switch it off altogether. But it is a good fuel saver on the positive side.

Minor niggle - when the clutch is down, it stops showing the gear it is in. It is again a great feature otherwise. I may have a tough time going back to any other car given these features.

Closing doors need extra attention, minor niggle. Also if a door is open, it doesn't tell which one. PLUS, the red light on ALL doors lights up. I kept on banging driver door while the rear door was not closed properly.

I am wondering what treatments should I get done. Underbody only? Or something else?

Is there anyone with September manufactured xuv 5OO? Are niggles really going down month by month. Have they solved clutch and brake problems at production line? I am keeping my fingers crossed as I have booked one.